Jonathan Takiff: Zenith measures up well against GE digital tuner/converter

THE GIZMO:

Zenith and GE digital TV tuner/converter boxes.

A NEW DAY COMIN': In the United States, nearly half of all households getting free, over-the-air TV aren't interested in switching to cable or satellite after the digital TV transition next February, a recent study by the Association of Public TV Stations found.

After trying out a couple of the new digital TV tuner boxes being offered at ultra-low prices to help viewers get over this hump, I wouldn't be surprised if the viewership for "free TV" actually increases in the all-digital TV age!

PLUG AND PLAY: Some people have been (mis)led to believe their trusty old TV set will turn into a giant doorstop when analog TV broadcasts end next Feb. 17. But by plugging in a digital-to-analog TV tuner/converter box like the Zenith DTT900 or GE/Jasco 22730, you'll be able to extend the life of that set for years, maybe even decades.

Both devices carry a $59.99 list price, with the Zenith already spotted at Circuit City and RadioShack. That's before applying the $40 rebate coupon that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration is doling out - one or two per household - to consumers who request them at www.dtv2009.gov or 800-DTV-2009.

Present the coupon when you buy the box and you'll spend just $20 - the best deal in consumer electronics today!

Designed to sit atop a TV set, the boxes measure about 9 inches across, 5 to 6.5 inches in depth, and just 1.5 inches high.

Hookup is very easy. Take the wire from your rabbit ears or rooftop UHF/VHF antenna and screw it to the box's antenna input. Then connect the supplied coaxial cable from the box's output terminal to your TV set's antenna input.

Even better-quality picture and stereo sound can be had by linking the new box and your TV through their matching composite video and stereo audio output/input jacks - you know, the ones colored yellow, red and white.

TESTING, TESTING: While I have a good Channel Master rooftop antenna on my house, I decided to try out these new boxes first with a $12.95 set of rabbit ears (newly relabeled "HDTV Indoor Antenna") from RadioShack.

Low and behold, LOTS of channels came in perfectly, with rock-steady, whistle-clean pictures that glowed with excellent color.

We're talking the main feeds from ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and CW, plus the new second and third channels these outlets are also multicasting. Currently, these added channels are heavy on news, information and weather among the majors. Extra religious, educational, children's, sports, infomercial and foreign-language programming can be found up in the "indie" channel zone.

ALL CLEAR: Not long ago, I got literally nothing in my Center City home on a digital TV - and horrible, ghost-riddled pictures from analog signals - when using an indoor antenna. But great progress has been made on digital tuners.

Zenith, a major developer of the digital TV standard, is on its sixth-generation chipset in this new box. That's why the tuner's pictures look so darned good with an indoor antenna, better than what I've nabbed from cable on the same set.

Now, not every digital TV station in town could be tuned in with the rabbit ears. I still had to connect to the rooftop antenna to pull in most of the area's multi-casting public TV stations (Philadelphia's WHYY-12, New Jersey's 23 and 52), which beam from varied locations.

But if you nab the analog versions of these (or any) channels decently with an indoor antenna, you won't need more to get the digital versions perfectly.

FEATURES: Besides better reception and those new, free, extra channels, these boxes also deliver digital TV's customizable closed-captioning, advanced parental controls and a very basic electronic program guide (EPG).

GE's EPG will reveal as much as eight days of upcoming programming on a channel - if the broadcaster elects to transmit that information. Or you can select a floating, picture-in-picture guide that lists the current and next four shows coming up on the channel.

The Zenith box overlays just a "simple" banner guide that details the current and next show playing on the tuned channel. But I appreciate how you can click left and right buttons to quickly see what's happening on adjacent channels, then tap once to switch when something catches your fancy.

REMOTELY INTERESTING: In general, the user interface through the Zenith's remote makes this package more appealing. There's a dedicated, programmable button to power your TV on and off. With the GE you'll still need to keep your old TV remote handy.

The Zenith's rocker-style volume and channel shifting buttons are more comfortable to use than the tiny buttons on the GE. Ditto for the zoom button - useful for cropping a letter-boxed show so the center portion fills your boxier, old-school TV screen.

The numerical keypad to call up a specific channel is better positioned on the Zenith remote, too. And, most importantly, when you want to go a core digital station like NBC 10-1, just enter "10" and it takes you there. With the GE box and remote, you must click "10," then hit the "-"(dash) button, then tap "1."

Life's too short for all that. *

Send e-mail to takiffj@phillynews.com.